Jacob Naven made it clear: Racism has no place in Manteca.
Naven — who is challenging incumbent Manteca Mayor Gary Singh in the Nov. 3 election — opened Sunday’s candidate forum hosted by the Manteca Interact youth service club at the Moffat Community Center/VFW Hall by using part of his opening statement to denounce those posting racist remarks about Singh on Facebook and other social media.
“I do not tolerate it,” Naven said. “Racism is a horrible and evil thing.”
Naven stated “I do not care about ethnicity or country of origin.”
He related how on Sierra tennis teams that he coaches that students — regardless of ethnicity or faith — do the same laps and do the same drills.
Singh — a naturalized citizen who came to this country as a 3 year-old from India and is a graduate of Manteca High as well as the University of the Pacific — has been repeatedly targeted in Facebook and social media postings for his ethnicity and his religion.
Naven’s condemnation of racism — in general and that specifically targeted at Singh — was a departure from the expected takes on everything from public safety, transparency, infrastructure such as roads and how tax dollars are spent to growth.
More than 200 were on hand for the nearly 2.5 hour event that also featured District 3 incumbent Dave Breitenbucher and challenger Lei Ann Larson as also as District 4 incumbent Mike Morowit and his challengers Dani Bettencourt and Rogger Gutierrez.
Unique solutions offered
to city issues, concerns
The candidates lined up on predictable positions as whether Manteca was a growing too fast with all incumbents asserting no — with Singh offering essentially it was just about right — and challengers asserting the city is growing too fast.
Gutierrez carved out a somewhat different position than other challengers by noting Manteca growth is slower today in terms of percentage of homes added each year than it was 25 years ago.
The unexpected responses were unique and specific solutions advanced by several candidates.
Larson, in a concession that current state law basically renders growth caps ineffective and bans efforts to stop housing developments, said she’d slow growth by ending contracts with outside firms hired to assist staff with processing development plans.
That would then require staff to handle all such processing with significantly less manpower to do so.
The city has hired outside firms to augment city staff for two basic reasons: One, to make sure projects are processed timely to meet state turnaround deadlines and to avoid adding staff that would likely not be needed when the housing market or economy cools.
Gutierrez, who has pointed out that combined basic city utility bills for water and sewer that hadn’t been increased for 13 years plus garbage, went from $94.78 a month on November 2023 to $150.82 a month in July 2026, wants to reduce the overall base rate by $30 a month per ratepayer.
The price tag of such a move comes to $12 million, of which he’d comb through the city’s overall budget of $391 million to find funds not legally restricted to other uses to make that happen.
The biggest pool of unrestricted money is the $87 million general fund that covers the cost of day-to-day municipal services such as police, fire, basic street upkeep, and parks not located within community facilities districts.
Bettencourt wants to give the youth advisory commission a bigger role in providing input to city leaders on youth-related and general concerns in Manteca. She would revamp the makeup of the commission to have appointments made by district with the mayor making an at-large appointment just like what the city has done with the planning commission as well as the parks and recreation commission.
The youth commission is now at large with the main conduit for seeking applicants to through Sierra, Manteca, and East Union high schools. Instead, council members would work to find applicants so that all areas of the community is represented.
Public safety
There is little doubt that everyone running wants more police and firefighters.
Little was offered by challengers on how to come up with the money to accomplish that goal except basically to scour the budget to find ways to reduce spending on other city functions.
Singh, Morowit, and Breitenbucher repeatedly pointed out that in the last four years of their current terms on the council by city has added 11 police officers and 9 firefighter positions, the most ever in any four-year period in Manteca history.
They also pointed to groundbreaking next month for the new $92 million police station as well as what will be at least a $12 million expenditure for the city’s sixth fire station.
Singh pointed out the funding — which relies heavily on the Measure Q three-quarter cent sales tax — will be paid off with 18-year bonds that will be retired before the 20-year temporary sales tax ends.
Morowit compared committing Measure Q receipts to the police and fire station as being similar to a household setting aside money for mortgage payments to purchase a home that very few people can pay cash for.
Gutierrez wants the size of the new $92 million police station reduced and the money saved to be spent on remodeling the current police headquarters so the city has two police stations.
Larson also questioned the need to spend $92 million on a new police station.
Contrasts on district level
takes in citywide issues
Bettencourt was critical of the conditions of streets in District 4, that is basically everything north of Louise Avenue except for the Diamond Oaks neighborhood.
She referenced how streets can be brutal on vehicles thanks to rough pavement.
Morowit countered District 4 has gotten the largest piece of the city street fund spending pie in the last four years when it comes to city dollars spent on pavement work.
He listed Lathrop Road, North Main Street, and Louise Avenue as well as work now underway in sections of Northgate Drive.
Larson said the majority of people she has talked to in District 3 don’t like the idea that the homeless center is located in their part of the city. She also contended it was a low-barrier shelter, which means they can’t turn away those that are drug addicts and such.
Breitenbucher stressed that was not the case as those caught using drugs or drinking are kicked out.
He also stressed the city’s two-prong approach of enforcement of qualify of life laws as well as efforts to get the homeless off the streets is working.
Breitenbucher underscored his assertion by noting the point in time count of the number of homeless dropped to 121in January 2026 from 25 two years prior.
Larson also wanted to see a limit on how long homeless could stay at the emergency shelter.
Gutierrez expresses concern that the roughly $840,000 the city is now paying His Way annually to operate the homeless shelter will balloon once the larger permanent homeless navigation center is completed.
Currently, the operational costs are being covered by federal and state grants but there is no guarantee that will continue to be the case going forward.
Everyone’s got to eat
All new candidates were asked what their favorite place to dine was in Manteca.
uBreitenbucher — who often takes his granddaughter out for lunch — said it was the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
uLarson, who has a 3-year old that likes pizza, said it was Mt. Mike’s Pizza.
uSingh said he has a weakness for In-n-Out Burger, although he was quick to add Manteca has a lot of great “mom and pop” restaurants.
uNaven said it was Noni Vita Ravioli & Deli as it offered family-style in a family friendly setting that fit right in The Family City.
uMorowit said it was the Hong Kong Restaurant, one of the first places that he dined at after moving it Manteca that has be in the same family for two generations. He fondly remembers the $4.25 buffet from the 1990s.
uBettencourt said it was family gatherings in her own backyard but if she had to go with a commercial dining option it would be Retro Pie.
uGutierrez did not mention a specific dining option but he said it seems as if Manteca has a hundred fast food options and could definitely use more sit-down dining options.
Notable quotes
Among the punchier lines candidates delivered included:
uNaven responding to the question about whether Manteca is growing too fast: “I‘ll say it in English and in Spanish. No and no.”
uSingh on transparency: “One reason why people complain more (is the city has been more transparent in what they are doing).
uMorowit on transparency: “You may not like it but I tell the truth.”
uBreitenbucher in finishing the statement (“You know you are a Mantecan) when you go to Mexico wearing a Manteca High shirt and they laugh at you.”
The proverbial 900-pound
gorilla in the campaign . . .
Singh was asked about the video he made of Dr. Matthew Alexander’s new Manteca chiropractic office for his weekly Facebook posting featuring a Manteca business where the chiropractor made an offer to provide a $50 discount for any new patient that voted for Singh.
That led to Naven’s campaign filing a complaint with District Attorney Ron Freitas that the discount offer under California law constituted an attempt to buy votes.
Freitas files misdemeanor charges against both Singh and Alexander. A court date is set for Oct. 16.
“I do take ownership of my mistakes,” Singh said.
The mayor said he should not have posted the video or that he should have at least edited out the comments about the discount that Alexander indicates in a letter to the City Council was a spur-of-the-moment remark that Singh had no prior knowledge that he would make.
Singh said he wasn’t versed in all laws and if he was in the case of the chiropractor’s offer it made no sense that he posted the video “to incriminate myself.”
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
